1986 Song X: Twentieth Anniversary Edition

Label: Nonesuch

The Texas-born alto saxophonist, composer, and free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman influenced generations of musicians, including a guitarist from Missouri named Pat Metheny. Two decades after their 1985 recording, this remastered and remixed edition – with Coleman’s son Denardo and Jack DeJohnette both on drums, with long time bassist Charlie Haden – sounds fresher than ever. The original eight tracks, from the bluesy, midtempo “Mob Job,” laced with Coleman’s eerie violin strains, and the crying ballad “Kathelin Gray” to the interlocking title track, all exhibit the quantum physics approach to melody, rhythm, harmony and improvisation Coleman calls Harmolodics. The additional, six unreleased selections from the Coleman canon include “The Good Life,” a Latin-tinged number, the hyper-bopped “Word From Bird,” “Compute,” and the melodically dark shadows of “The Veil.” As Metheny wrote in the liner notes, “This twentieth-anniversary edition of record feels like an improvement and reveals a more complete picture of our efforts.” —Amazon.com